Chapter 1 - Asher
Once I’d parked my pickup truck in the crumbling parking lot, I stepped out of the truck and stared at the huge, run-down post office that had once been an amazing structure.Oh boy, I thought.This is going to need a lot of work. I hope the TV show is ready for how long this is going to take.
“Asher!”
I spun at the sound of my name and spotted Jake, the site foreman, coming my way, clicking a fob to lock his own pickup truck behind him as he approached. Following close behind was Max, his boyfriend and the producer ofHeartland Overhaul.
Jake nodded at me in greeting. “Thanks for coming by. We always appreciate having another pro on board. Especially since my last carpenter, Troy, moved across the country to be near family.”
Max gave me a warm smile. “Nothing but the best for my show,” he said.
It was probably supposed to sound reassuring, but I shrugged, my face heating. I’d been a carpenter for more than fifteen yearsbut still didn’t think of myself as a pro, even though I ran a small carpentry company, the only one in Port Grandlin. I had my limitations, like anyone else, but maybe that thinking was just imposter syndrome. “No problem. Let’s take a look around.” I followed the two of them and we toured the grounds, starting with the exterior. Jake pointed out things he wanted our help on, Max nodding along in agreement.
Before we entered the ancient building, Jake passed me a hard hat and knocked twice on his. “You can never be too careful.” I put the hard hat on, nodding in agreement. “As you know, we’re really focusing on the restoration of the building—other than bringing it up to code, obviously. We’re going to return it to its former glory.”
“Will it continue to be a post office?”
Max shook his head. “We met with the town, and they agreed that they want us to turn it into a cultural use space. Art gallery, event venue, that kind of thing.”
I wandered around, carefully avoiding the debris on the ground. After checking out the small lobby, I headed behind the counter, making mental note of any woodwork that needed to be done. The walls were still intact, plaster crumbling off the brick. That was a good sign, but it still left counters, cabinets, trim, and so, so much more. There was beautiful crown molding that was water damaged and needed to be pulled down. With some luck—and skill—we’d be able to replicate it. I also noted things that needed to be changed, like adding a ramp and replacing the rotting handrails on the stairs to the entrance.
I made my way back to the lobby and nodded. “Looks good. This won’t be a problem.”
With a smile, Jake clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Are you sure? The trim is really intricate. Especially that crown.”
“I’m sure. I have a guy. He’ll be perfect.” What I didn’t mention was the fact that gettingmeon a ladder or evenscaffolding to work on the crown molding absolutely wasn’t going to happen. Heights and I weren’t exactly friends. My healthy respect for heights had developed when I was a teenager, when I fell off the garage roof my cousin Eric had goaded me into climbing onto. I’d broken my arm in two places and had to wear a cast for an entire summer. Ever since then, I've done my best to keep my feet firmly on the ground. It could definitely be a predicament for someone in construction to be in, but I’d worked around it and managed to build my carpentry skills without too many incidents. That's where having a team came in. I had an apprentice that had zero problems with that kind of work.
Jake must have said something while I was lost in my own thoughts, because he called my name. “Asher? You with me?”
I blinked a couple of times and nodded. “Yeah. Sorry about that. Just got caught up in my own thinking for a minute there.”
Max grinned and chuckled. “Jake will do that too, when he’s gearing up for a project. Get all in his head about what I want to do, how it’s going to look, that kind of thing.”
“Yep. That’s exactly it.” I didn’t need to tell them the truth.
Jake cleared his throat, checking the time on his phone. “Well, we’re headed home. Max hates it when we work too late. He says we always miss our favorite shows. I keep telling him we can catch them on streaming the next day, but he likes to watch them live. With commercials, if you can believe that.” He rolled his eyes fondly.
Max elbowed him affectionately. “It’s not the same.”
I nodded. “Sure thing,” I said. Next thing I knew, they were getting back into Jake’s truck and heading away. I smiled softly to myself. Jake seemed so much more easygoing since he’d met Max. It was like Max gave him a purpose other than just being a grouchy guy on a construction site telling everyone else what to do. I was happy for them. I really was. Maybe a little bitjealous, too. It wasn’t that I wanted Max or Jake for myself—they were both objectively good-looking, but I was definitely straight—tragically so, as my friend Jackson often jokingly complained. No, the jealousy was more over their relationship. I was thirty-five and ready to settle down. I just hadn’t found the right person yet.
Once I wrapped up my work at the post office, I headed home to change into clothes that weren’t covered in sawdust, before going right back out again. I was meeting Jackson at Copper Elephant, the bar in downtown Port Grandlin we frequented at least two or three nights a week. We were all single, so none of us had partners at home waiting for us to watch TV with commercials together.
When I pulled the door open and made my way inside the dimly lit bar that had recently become overrun with a younger crowd, the first person I spotted was Jackson, sipping a beer and lurking near the pool tables, waiting to stake a claim to one. I made my way to the bar, giving Jackson a nod to let him know I’d seen him and I’d be there shortly. After collecting a bottle of beer from the bartender, I meandered over.
“Hey there,” he said, bumping his fist against mine. “How’s it going?”
I sipped my beer and nodded. “Not bad. Just left the old post office. That TV show is going to have us restore it.” By then, just about everyone in town knew that the reality showHeartland Overhaulhad selected Port Grandlin as their first town to make over. They’d started with an old house, and when that had gone well, they’d decided to expand into historic sites for the town. The post office was first in a line of buildings getting the royal treatment, including our decrepit library and the town hall that had definitely seen better days.
“That’s awesome, man.”
A moment later, one of the people at the pool table whooped as he sank the eight ball to win the game. “Hell yeah!” The guy turned to us. “You’re up, fellas.” He passed me his cue stick and I watched while Jackson racked the balls.
As we shot pool, Jackson talked about his latest failed date. “And then he said, and I quote, ‘This is boring. Can we go back to my place now so I can fuck you?’ The nerve! How dare he say watching a classic movie like that on the big screen is boring?”
I laughed a little and rolled my eyes. Somehow Jackson was always going on the worst dates possible. He could probably have written a book about them. “What movie were you seeing?”
“The Princess Bride!” His tone was indignant.
